Shape Navigation Links

Shape navigation links let you turn any shape or group in a diagram into a clickable link. When a viewer clicks the shape, they navigate to the linked target - whether that is another page, a different diagram, an ERD view, or an external URL. This turns static architecture diagrams into interactive navigation hubs.

Supported Link Targets

Each shape can link to one of eight target types. The link type determines what happens when a viewer clicks the shape in the published site.

Configuring Links

In infographic and presentation mode, the layers panel shows a link icon next to each shape and group. Clicking the icon opens a configuration overlay where you select the link type and target.

Visual Indicators

Shapes with navigation links display a subtle anchor badge at the bottom-left corner. This badge appears in both the editor and the published viewer. In the layers panel, the link icon changes to a branded colour when a link is active.

Diagram-to-Diagram Navigation

One of the most useful patterns is linking shapes to other diagrams. This creates a drill-down experience where a high-level architecture overview links to detailed diagrams for each subsystem. Viewers can click a service box to see its internal architecture, or click a database icon to open the ERD view.

Intent Graph Integration

Every navigation link (except external URLs and home links) creates a navigates-to edge in the architecture intent graph. This edge connects the source diagram to the target document. The intent graph then provides:

View Mode Annotations

ERD views, graph views, and search views are read-only projections of the data model. Shapes in these views cannot be linked directly because they are generated from the model. However, you can add annotation shapes using the Annotate toolbar in the top menu.

Annotation shapes in views behave like regular shapes for editing purposes - you can rename them, reposition them, and delete them - even though the rest of the view is read-only.